Weekly BBC Two programme The Premier League Show, hosted by Gabby Logan, profiled their top 10 Premier League moments of 2016 on Wednesday night, with Sunderland’s 3-0 home win at Everton in May ranked fourth.

The famous win was only beaten by Jose Mourinho’s unhappy return to Stamford Bridge, Tottenham’s end of season collapse at Stamford Bridge, and Leicester City’s 3-1 win at Manchester City - the moment when people began to realise they were going to achieve something special.

Read More

Sunderland spent a total of 237 days in the Premier League relegation zone last season but Allardyce was eventually able to guide them to safety.

Having taken over in October of last year, with Sunderland sitting in 19th place and with only three points to their name, Allardyce completely transformed them.

Slowly but surely he made the side difficult to break down, and with the inspired January additions of Lamine Kone, Wahbi Khazri and Jan Kirchhoff, the Black Cats were able to steer clear of relegation.

After a brilliant 3-2 win over Chelsea, Sunderland thrashed Everton 3-0 at the Stadium of Light to seal their safety.

(Image: PA Wire)

What is more, the win also confirmed the relegation of arch-rivals Newcastle United, with the night going down in Sunderland folklore.

The show had an esteemed panel of pundits describing Sunderland’s sensational turnaround, and you can read what each of them said below.

Gary Lineker

“Sunderland did, what Sunderland do.

“All of a sudden they were sending down their local rivals Newcastle.”

Jermaine Jenas

“If I thought anybody was going to turn it around, it would’ve been Big Sam.

“I was questioning some of his moves. He was playing Jermain Defoe out wide on the left.

“I remember having conversations with Jermain and he was saying ‘I know I’m a striker, I know the goals will come.’

“That’s probably the moment when it clicked, when he realised Jermain was his main man.

“Obviously it would have rocked Newcastle to the core. The fact Sunderland sent them down - it doesn’t get any worse than that.”

Danny Mills

“What he does is simple. He goes back to basics.

“He made his team hard to beat. Of course, he’s had one or two issues since then.”

Mark Lawrenson

“He’s just a great manager to avoid you getting relegated.

“If you sack your manager, and you’re in the bottom three of the Premier League, which manager do you want? Sam Allardyce.”

Danny Murphy

“They did struggle for a period early on when he first took over and you were beginning to think maybe they can’t pull a rabbit out of the hat this time.”

Kevin Kilbane

“I remember being at Tottenham earlier on in the season when they were blown away and they just didn’t look like a Sam Allardyce side.”

On the Everton game:

“The momentum from the start of the night was all with Sunderland and you sensed that this was the occasion they were going to do it.”

Alan Shearer

“With a guy like Defoe in your team - if you create chances, you will score goals.”

BBC Premier League Show Top 10 moments of 2016

1. Manchester City 1-3 Leicester City (The moment people stood and took notice of Leicester City’s title credentials)